Proxy voting in Taiwan took a step backwards today with news that sub-custodian banks will have to attend company AGMs in person to vote proxies on behalf of their foreign clients.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has amended the rules governing proxy voting to require the local representative of foreign institutional investors to attend all shareholders’ meetings, regardless of the size of their shareholdings.
When the rules were first amended following the abolition of Taiwan’s Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) system in October last year, foreign investors were required to appoint local representatives or agents to attend shareholder meetings and exercise voting only if they held over 100,000 shares.
From now onwards, agent banks will have to attend all shareholder meetings on behalf of their clients. Most will have to charge extra for the service.
The Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of most listed companies in Taiwan take place between April and June each year.